Utilizing Tubes

I have to admit that this is another thing that I have neglected in my affiliate side of things, but I am currently working on my own little tube.

But I wanted to ask others for their opinions on using tubes for affiliate sales.

What tactics and methods would you use to utilize the tubes for traffic? I've seen one tube that allows a link to be added to your uploads. But other than this, is adding a watermark acceptable? Are there any sponsors out there who actually allow you to use their video clips in this way?

I guess I'm looking for any resources there are out there for those affiliates who upload content to tubes in exchange for traffic. Any advice or help with this is very much appreciated - I am definitely still a noob ;)

I have been thinking about this too since Becs post and that my most popular site has been bumped to a number 2 spot on g**gl3 by a tube with only 3 vids in the keyword. BS by my standard but off topic.

Happy to hear what others say to this thread. Tubes seem like they would be a lot more work to create and maintain than a blog or free sites.

How much work?
What is the conversion like?

Most sponsors have hosted FLV videos and XML feeds these days, the easiest & cheapest way for you to run a tube is to use those videos & feeds and use the sponsor's bandwidth. The feeds will keep your tube site updated with the latest sponsor videos, which keeps it fresh for bookmarkers. The only issue here is that surfers may get tired of seeing the same videos on every site. To get around that, I would suggest keeping your tube focused on a niche, then getting as many sponsor videos you can from that niche. That will give you variety and focus, which will help you get those bookmarkers.

Yes, some sponsors will allow you to rebrand videos with your own URL, but this of course means you would have to host those videos & pay for the bandwidth. And tube sites chew thru bandwidth, so be warned. Also, be careful and check with the sponsor first to make sure its OK with them.

For traffic, you need to do the usual array of things like link exchanges, submitting your tubes to various directories, putting links to your tube on your blogs and other sites, etc. It may help to start by purchasing traffic from places like AdEngage & AdBucks too.